


The Game's End

by MaplesHaiku



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Complete, Feels, Gen, One Shot, Sad, Short, Short One Shot, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 03:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21190676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaplesHaiku/pseuds/MaplesHaiku
Summary: Following yet another scolding by the Diamonds, Pink Diamond finds herself warping to a place she never thought she would find herself in ever again.





	The Game's End

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where the Rebellion never happened. Pink went through with her colonization of Earth, and she has since obtained more colonies. She still abandoned Spinel in the garden, though...

"_PINK!_"

The pink lady found herself staring into the fierce yellow eyes of Yellow Diamond, furious as tiny strange rodents with many maroon eyes infested the sauna, some even climbing on her fellow Diamonds. Yellow grabbed one on her shoulder and squashed it in her hand.

"This is ridiculous," she snapped. She tossed the corpse into the side of the room, making the littlest Diamond cringe.

"We thought these days were over now!" added Blue Diamond. "You should know better not to bring organics into the extraction chamber!"

"I-" started Pink Diamond.

"_Enough,_" growled the yellow gem. She started extending an open hand towards her, ready to grab her at any moment.

But instead of standing still, she bolted out of the extraction chamber.

"My Diamond, wait-" started her pearl, taking a few steps towards her and extending a hand before faltering.

Fearing the suffocating darkness of the prison tower once more, Pink pushed the doors opened, alarming the topaz guards standing outside. Eyes watched her race through the hallways, towards nowhere in particular. Loud footsteps soon followed her, calling her name. But she couldn't let herself be captured. Not again. Lesser gems stepped out of the way to let the Diamonds pass without a second thought. As the scenery shifted from yellow to all kinds of colors, she soon noticed staircases leading up to the various warps present on Homeworld. She knew for a fact that the largest one, locate right in the middle of the structure, was the Galaxy Warp. And it could take her to any warp in the entire galaxy.

As the footsteps drew near, she jumped up to the top, using her floating abilities to her advantage. Clumsily she landed on the middlemost warp, and she begged for it to take her somewhere safe. Somewhere the other Diamonds couldn't find her, at least not for a while. They would have to search through thousands, maybe even millions, of warp streams for that. Soon, it lit up, and blinding light surrounded her as she was taken elsewhere.

When the light around her faded, her magenta eyes widened at the sudden darkness surrounded her. A thin atmosphere coated the main area that led down from the staircase, ruined pink pillars poking out from the blue fog. The location was generally overgrown with withered flora, and she could make out a fountain in the middle. It only took a few moments to register where she was, long-forgotten memories suddenly rushing back to her.

_No..._

She took a step, then another, and then another. Her heart ached to see the garden in such disarray, but then again, it was her decision to leave it, wasn't it? She strolled down the pavement, examining it. Pink pursed her lips. It would need a lot of work, and a lot of her own magic to restore it to its former glory. At the bottom of the stairs, she knelt down and felt the dry grass. As she brushed her gloved hand over it, the plants were given new life, flourishing into beautiful shades of green, contrasting the previous dullness. She smiled. Ah, how much they played here...

That was when she stood up and met the dark beady eyes of Spinel, breaking her brief moment of happiness. There she was, standing in the same exact place she had last seen her. All with a tired smile on her face. Her hair was a mess, buns falling out of place. Her clothes were tattered with dirt and other debris, and vines had rooted her feet into place. Somehow, she was still smiling. When their eyes met, her smile only grew, her eyes becoming brighter.

"Pink..." Her voice was soft and dry from millennia of disuse. "You're finally here."

"I..." The Diamond trailed off. What was she going to say? If she knew her true intentions, the consequences would be dire. She knew how clingy she was, and how clingy she will be if she brought her back to Homeworld. She couldn't let the others see her as a child again. Not with Spinel around.

"Pink...?" The girl with a heart-shaped gemstone lifted heavy feet, the dry tendrils snapping. She shuffled over to her, the goofy smile still pertaining. Immediately Spinel began to dance and summon some bubbles to juggle, an old trick she used to do. Unlike before, Pink Diamond didn't crack a laugh, not even a smile. Instead, she was met with disinterest. She soon noticed, and the bubbles disappeared as her expression fell. "Why aren't you smiling? I thought we were best friends."

After a long pause, the Diamond muttered, "No."

"Huh?" Spinel cupped an enlarged hand around where her ear would be. "What was that?"

"No," she said, louder.

"Huh...?" Her hand dropped to the floor, disbelief crossing her features. "'No?'"

"We aren't 'best friends'," she uttered, looking away. She couldn't bare to look at her innocent gaze any longer. "We never were in the first place."

"If we aren't best friends, then..." It was a terrifying sound as she demanded, "_What am I to you__?_"

"Nothing. I wanted you to leave this place and find someone else. I didn't want to see you again." Pink clenched a fist. "I wanted to forget about you. I needed to be the Diamond I was supposed to be. Not an embarrassment."

"You..." She heard a sniff, and she looked over to see Spinel crying, tears pouring out of her eyes. It seemed like her eyelashes now lined the bottom of them, too. "..._No!_" She wrapped her arms around the Diamond and pulled her towards her, causing Pink to yelp. She had to leave, she had to. Or else the heart-shaped gem would bound her here, to her past naivety, forever. Enraged, she yelled with a cracking voice, "I wait for 6,000 years, waiting for you to come back, and then you come back, and then you... you tell me you wanted to _leave me behind?!_ That we were never friends?! What did I ever do, Pink? I'm supposed to be your friend!" She collapsed on the ground, her grasp loosening. "If I'm not your friend, then who am I?" she concluded weakly.

"You're... I don't know," Pink Diamond admitted. "I don't know."

Spinel retracted her arms from her master and plopped onto the ground, her limbs spilling out in front of her. "I'm not your friend." Tears fell from her face. "I failed. I'm not your friend," she repeated.

Soon, the warp pad hummed to life behind them, and Pink looked over her shoulder to see Blue and Yellow Diamond. Panic rose in her throat once more, and she fell onto her back, turning around to face them and backed away from them. The two Diamonds walked down the staircase, their shadows casting an ominous threat over them.

"Pink, do you know how much trouble you caused us just by running away?" Yellow scolded. "You know what will happen if you keep up your bad behavior."

_White'll take away one of my colonies. _"I know," she acknowledged quietly. "I'm sorry." She wiped a tear away from her eye.

Blue looked over Yellow's shoulder, and she suddenly asked, "Is that... Spinel?"

Yellow knelt down to examine the heart-shaped gem. "Pink's little playmate," the yellow lady noted.

Spinel looked up at them and poorly performed the Diamond salute. "My Diamonds," she addressed them, sorrow still in her voice.

"What happened here?" Blue Diamond demanded of Pink Diamond.

"I... left her here for 6,000 years," she answered reluctantly.

Yellow scoffed, her eyes locking with the heart-shaped gem's. "We can't have a mess like her standing around, when she could be used elsewhere." Spinel visibly winced at the statement. Her golden eyes glanced down at the littlest Diamond. "Do it." Even when it wasn't physically said, Pink understood her meaning. She wanted her to rejuvenate Spinel, so she could forget this ever happened and be someone else's best friend. As cruel as it was, she feared the backlash the others would give her if she didn't follow through even more.

"Yellow!" Blue condemned. "This is Pink's! We can't get rid of another one of her things!"

"And we can't let a perfectly good gem go to waste, either!" the yellow gem argued. "With what Pink's done to her, this is the only way!"

Pink Diamond looked at her hands. A pink rippling aura soon coated them as Yellow's commands echoed in her mind. The other Diamonds looked down at her, expectant.

"Pink..." Spinel whined, looking over at her. "You're not gonna do it, are you?"

Tears filled her eyes as she said, "I'm sorry," and then she struck out with her aura. The pink cloud covered a betrayed Spinel as similarly pink lines coursed through her body, and then she poofed into a puff of magenta smoke, and then a heart-shaped gemstone clattered to the ground. Pink Diamond walked up to it and surrounded it in a pink bubble.

Yellow Diamond took the bubble, and then Pink's hand, and then she said, "We're leaving this stars-forsaken place."

The three matriarchs walked up the stairs, to the warp pad, and then they activated it, warping away, leaving the forgotten garden behind once more.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked my first AO3-exclusive fanfiction! What did you think? Feel free to leave a comment below, and stay tuned for more fanfictions to come!


End file.
